Jun. 26, 2013

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Plaintiffs in the California Proposition 8 gay marriage case Paul Katami, center, and his partner Jeff Zarrillo, greet former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. In a major victory for gay rights, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a provision of a federal law denying federal benefits to married gay couples and cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in California. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) / AP

Oral argument on protected class

During oral arguments on Proposition 8, Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Charles Cooper, who defended the law, about discriminating against gays beyond marriage. “Outside of the, outside of the marriage context, can you think of any other rational basis, reason, for a State using sexual orientation as a factor in denying homosexuals benefits or imposing burdens on them? Is there any other rational decision-making that the Government could make? Denying them a job, not granting them benefits of some sort, any other decision?” Sotomayor asked, according to a transcript of the argument. Cooper’s response was succinct. “Your Honor, I cannot. I do not have any — anything to offer you in that regard. I think marriage is —,” Cooper said, at which point Sotomayor cut him off. “All right. If that, if that is true, then why aren’t they a class? If they’re a class that makes any other discrimination improper, irrational, then why aren’t we treating them as a class for this one thing? Are you saying that the interest of marriage is so much more compelling than any other interest as they could have?” Sotomayor said.

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Springfield and Missouri are likely to see limited immediate impact from the Supreme Court’s Wednesday rulings on same-sex marriage , though one city official said the local nondiscrimination debate could be affected.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, extending federal marriage benefits to legally married gay couples. Another decision will reinstate same-sex marriage in California but likely has no larger impact.

Whether the rulings will affect Springfield’s ongoing debate about nondiscrimination was not clear immediately after the ruling. A proposed ordinance prohibiting discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is currently being mulled by a local task force.

A more sweeping ruling from the Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage across the country could have rendered Springfield’s debate over nondiscrimination moot. That would have, in effect, made sexual orientation a protected class like race or sex.

The possibility of creating a protected class came up during the court’s oral arguments, when the court heard a challenge to Proposition 8, a California law banning gay marriage in the state.

Reached after the decision, City Attorney Dan Wichmer was still reading the court’s opinions, but he believes the rulings could affect the nondiscrimination debate in Springfield.

“I think there may be some practical implications we may need to discuss with the committee,” Wichmer said.

Wichmer had previously said the court’s decision could pre-empt a local ordinance. Wichmer also said that if gay marriage was affirmed by the court it would make it harder to discriminate against people based on sexual orientation generally.

Miles Sweeney, who chairs the city’s task force on sexual orientation and gender identity, said the task force will try to determine if the rulings have an impact. He deferred analysis of the decisions to Wichmer.

Kelly Johnson, chair of the Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights, said she does not see an impact on the city’s work on a nondiscrimination ordinance.

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“It’s apples and oranges. We are asking for basic protections — to put a roof over your head and food on the table,” Johnson said.

Stephanie Perkins, deputy director of PROMO, a Missouri-based gay rights group, said the decisions do not have a practical effect on the task force but said it will allow for more conversation on the topic of equality. She said it is important to show that forward progress on the issue is still happening elsewhere.

Statewide, there is no law against discrimination based on sexual orientation when it comes to employment or housing, though there are federal rules designed to stop discrimination in housing.

No action was taken this year on a bill introduced in the General Assembly to ban discrimination.

“They’re still at risk of losing their jobs, they’re still at risk of losing their homes,” Perkins said.

Rep. Charlie Norr, D-Springfield, said he does not think the decisions will change the nondiscrimination debate in Springfield or at the state level.

“If they can’t agree here on it at the local level, I can’t see the state would be that much better,” Norr said.

Republican control of the General Assembly closes the possibility for change in the near future, Norr said.

Same-sex marriage will also continue to be prohibited under the Missouri Constitution. While the court ruled that legally married same-sex couple must be eligible for federal benefits, states are still free to make their own determination as to whether to marry same-sex couples.

Missouri voters passed a ban on same-sex marriage in 2004. It was the first state to do so after Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage.

Right now, same-sex marriage is not supported by either the state’s top Democrat or Republican.

Gov. Jay Nixon has said in the past he does not support it, though he said Wednesday the rulings were a step forward for equality without explicitly endorsing same-sex marriage, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, has voiced his opposition.

“We’re opposed to gay marriage because I think those two concepts, they’re contradictory. Marriage is, by its very definition, the union of a man and a woman for procreation and continuing the human species,” Jones told reporters in March. “That’s what it is — look it up.”